Ice Ice Baby

Get down to Boho Gelato and help decide Brighton and Hove’s best new ice cream flavour

Who’s invented the nicest ices this year? Well, The Brighton and Hove Food and Drink Festival plan to find out as primary school children from across the city have been getting creative and inventing an all-new ice cream flavour for the summer. This year’s Great Brighton Ice Cream Contest launched in January 2014 and over 260 young people participated by drawing their perfect ice concoction.

A panel of judges including Seb Cole of Boho Gelato, yours truly representing the food festival, Analiese Doctrove from Rockinghorse, Shoshana Plail from ChildFriendlyBrighton.co.uk, Katharine Hale from South Downs National Park and Hanna Neter from Juice FM spent an afternoon at Hotel du Vin carefully considering the entries and selecting five finalists that demonstrated imaginative flavours that could be popular with the public. After much deliberation and lip licking the panel chose the following five ideas which geloto genius Seb dashed away to create.

Spicy White Whirl: white chocolate, lime and crushed chilli
Rowan Kingston of Balfour Primary
Chocolate Biscuit Caramel Crunch
Jack Tollerfield of Westdene Primary
Mango and Rhubarb
Celare Humma of Bilingual Primary School
Vanilla, Pretzel and Caramel Swirl
Gabriel Amicucci, Brown of St Bernadettes
Vanilla, Strawberry Jam, Peanut Butter and Toasted Breadcrumbs
Gabriel Winter,Middle Street

Those five flavours are now on sale at Boho Gelato in Pool Valley, Brighton, and you can sample and buy until Thursday 17 April. The winning flavour will be the ice cream that sells most in that period, and the winner will be announced by me on the food festival’s free entry Live Food Show stage on Hove Lawns at 10.45am on Good Friday 18 April.

Over the summer months you’ll be able to purchase the winning flavour from Boho Gelato with proceeds donated to Rockinghorse children’s charity.

The Brighton & Hove Food and Drink Festival ‘Spring Harvest’ runs citywide 16-27 April.

For more information visit www.brightonfoodfestival.com.

Continuing the theme of ice cream, I am just back from Sicily where I have been setting up the next International Chef Exchange, this time with a difference. Boho Gelato’s very own Seb Cole will be joining me in Acireale for the Granita Festival where he will be representing our city with his delicious artisan ice creams. Acireal will then send back their top granita maker to the Autumn Harvest Brighton and Hove Food and Drink Festival for a return chilly gastronomic match. Taking ice cream to Italy might seem like taking coals to Newcastle but we are sure that Seb’s delicious treats will more than meet the high standards we will find in Italy, and if not “he’ll be sleeping with the fishes” – only kidding, Seb!

Pics: Â©Julia Claxton